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Apple Bavarois
Pare and cut into quarters some sweet apples and place in a preserving-pan; add the juice of some lemons, a little sherry, some sugar and an ounce of isinglass dissolved in a little warm water and strained. Place over a moderate fire, stirring the contents occasionally with a wooden spoon. Stew until the apples are quite tender, and then rub through a tammy-sieve into a basin. Place this upon ice and stir slowly until at the point of setting, when some whipped cream must be stirred in, and the whole poured into a mould. Turn out when set, and serve. A wineglass of maraschino or noyeau adds considerably to the richness of the flavor.
A cold set cream in the nineteenth-century style, written with almost no quantities — Oscar assumed a kitchen brigade that knew the ratios. The two things to get right are the setting agent and the temperature at which the cream goes in.
- Isinglass to gelatinIsinglass is a collagen setting agent made from sturgeon swim bladders; powdered gelatin replaces it directly. An ounce of leaf or powdered gelatin will set roughly 4 to 5 cups of liquid to a firm unmoulded shape, so scale the fruit purée to that — about 3 lb of apples cooked down, plus the cream, is a reasonable batch. Old isinglass varied enormously in strength, so treat the ounce as approximate rather than exact.
- Unstated quantitiesA working version: 3 lb sweet apples, juice of 2 lemons, ½ cup sherry, ¾ cup sugar, and 1½ cups cream whipped to soft peaks. Adjust the sugar to the apples you have; the recipe calls for sweet ones, and a tart cooking variety will need more.
- Preserving-panThis means a wide, shallow, heavy pan, traditionally unlined copper. Do not stew acidic apples and lemon juice in bare copper; a stainless or enamelled pan gives the same broad evaporating surface without the metallic reaction.
- Moderate fireMedium-low on a modern hob. The apples should collapse in their own juice over 20 to 30 minutes without catching; stir often, since sugar and fruit purée scorch quickly on a thin base.
- Tammy-sieveA tammy was a worsted cloth through which purée was wrung by two people twisting opposite ends. A food mill followed by a pass through a fine mesh sieve gives the same seedless, skin-free texture in a fraction of the time.
- The hinge: the point of settingFold the whipped cream in when the purée has cooled to the consistency of unbeaten egg white — thick, but still pourable. Too warm and the cream melts and the mixture separates into a jelly layer with foam on top; too cold and it sets in lumps that will not smooth out.
- NoyauNoyeau (noyau) is a liqueur flavoured with stone-fruit kernels, historically carrying real bitter-almond character. Modern bottlings use controlled flavourings; maraschino is easier to find and does the same job. Add it with the sherry, or stir into the cooled purée before the cream.
- Moulding and turning outChill at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Dip the mould in hot water for 5 seconds and invert onto a cold plate; a lightly oiled mould releases more reliably than a dry one.
- YieldThe quantities above fill a 1½-quart mould and serve 8 to 10 in the small portions such a rich set cream calls for.
A bavarois — Bavarian cream — is a custard or fruit purée lightened with whipped cream and set with gelatin, a form that French pastry codified in the nineteenth century and that Carême and his successors treated as a standard of the cold sideboard. The name is generally traced to the Bavarian court connections of French chefs, though the link is traditional rather than documented. What marks this version as period is the isinglass: fish-derived setting agents were still in use in professional kitchens when Oscar Tschirky assembled this book from the Waldorf's working repertoire in the 1890s. The absence of quantities is equally telling — these pages were written for cooks who would be told the batch size by the day's covers, not for a home reader following along.